


Mobster

by GemNika



Series: JackaLu Week 2016 [2]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Romance, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Organized Crime, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 12:37:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemNika/pseuds/GemNika
Summary: Jackal is just a simple bodyguard for the day. All he has to do is escort Mard Geer's precious sister to a boutique. It shouldn't be difficult, except for the fact that he's in love with her and she's untouchable.





	Mobster

 

Heels clacked softly as the woman he was waiting for descended the marble staircase, and Jackal lifted his head to see the blonde he was supposed to be escorting for the day. He'd seen Lucy countless times since he'd started working for the mob nearly ten years ago, but it never got old being able to be in the same room as her. And he would never have a shot at anything more than being just what he was, a bodyguard.

Her arm was linked with Mard Geer's, her head held high and a bright smile on her face. It was enough to knock his boots clear across the country of Fiore. Still, she was the boss's little sister, his only family, and there was no chance in hell Jackal could make a move. To show that she was the one he dreamt of every night. Maybe if he played his cards right, did everything to the letter and went above and beyond, Mard would loosen up enough to allow him to take her out to dinner.

But, Jackal knew his place. Being her bodyguard was more than enough, and more than some piece of trash like himself really deserved. Yeah, he'd worked his way up from being some drug-peddling thug out on the street, to blowing up the competition, to sitting just outside of the Underworld King's inner circle. He could peer in, but he'd never touch it.

"Jackal," Mard said smoothly as he came to the bottom landing, his smile from listening to Lucy's new novel idea fading while he took in the distant look in the blond's golden eyes. "The car is prepared?"

"Yes, sir," Jackal nodded. "Driver's ready to go, and I've got two others set at different points to keep lookout. Just as you ordered."

"Really, Mard," Lucy sighed. "Don't you think that's a bit extreme? I'm just going shopping."

"And because it's well known that you are in my favor, someone could come after you," the black-haired man replied. "I won't take any chances."

"It's a small boutique, what could possibly happen?"

"A great many things. Had you taken my suggestion to have the owner come here-"

"No, it freaks people out coming here. And just for a fitting? It's a  _bathing suit_."

Jackal turned toward the door to give the two some privacy, and to hide his smirk at how the blonde was talking to his boss. He really couldn't help it. She was the only one that got away with anything around that place. His eyes locked onto two other guards, Silver and his son Gray, to see they were wearing identical expressions to his own. Everyone knew that there was no fucking with Mard, unless your name was Lucy.

"I'll be on my best behavior," Lucy nodded, closing her eyes as her brother pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "I've got one of your best goons with me, right?"

"Yes," Mard smirked. His fingers played lightly through the sun-kissed tips of her hair. "Jackal, if anything seems off, you have her taken out of there."

"Of course, sir. Miss Lucy will be safe as can be."

Lucy gave her brother a tender smile, leaning up to kiss his cheek - just the way he hated - then lightly squeezed his hand. "No worries. I'll get what I need and come home. No detours."

"Good. Now, off with you."

Lucy rolled her eyes and stepped over to stand beside her guard. "Ready when you are, Sharptooth."

Jackal smirked down at the sassy blonde, then gestured for her to lead the way. The grounds were as safe as could be, so there was nothing more that he could do than watch her walk ahead of him with his peripherals. Most people would have hated the thought of being a bodyguard to some rich girl while she went shopping, but it was fine with him.

It wasn't even about her going shopping for clothes, that she tried on and he'd actually get to see her in the few other times he'd been assigned to guard her. That was a bonus, sure, but Jackal loved being around her. She was hilarious, and so fucking kind it was almost painful. He still had no idea how Lucy could be the way she was while surrounded by the kinds of people that Mard dealt with. It just didn't make any sense to him, but he already knew that he loved her all the more for it.

Lucy placed her hand on Jackal's arm as the maroon-haired driver held the door open for her, smiling as he was pulled out of his thoughts once again. "You seem kinda distracted," she said quietly. "I think Mard's just being overprotective, but if he's not…"

"Don't worry 'bout a thing," Jackal chuckled. "Your safety is my top priority."

She nodded then, sighing as she climbed into the back of the black car with windows that were tinted to the point of being one-way mirrors.

"Just the one stop today, Bright Eyes?" the driver asked as he and Jackal took their seats in the front.

"Yeah, Cobra. No stops for ice cream this time," she smirked. He chuckled and put the car in gear, then slowly drove away from the estate, and Lucy's smile faded once the glass lifted between her and the two men in the front.

* * *

Lucy bit her lip nervously as she stared at herself in the mirror. She loved the color of the bathing suit, but she wasn't sure if the cut was actually something that she could deal with. Mainly because she was positive that one wrong move would result in the little triangles of material just dissolving. Just the thought of how embarrassing that would be had her whimpering in shame.

"Everything alright in there, Miss Lucy?"

She rolled her eyes and peeked out of the changing room to see Jackal was still standing vigil just outside the curtain. "Jackal, this is a process. Are you really so eager to get back?"

"Not at all," he replied, carefully eying their surroundings. "But from the sounds you keep making, I'm starting to think the thing is trying to eat you."

She blinked then looked down at her mostly bare breasts that were hidden behind the curtain. "No? I just…"

"You can't decide which one would make you more beautiful?" Jackal mumbled to himself.

"Did you say something?"

"Hm? Oh… No, Miss Lucy."

"Well… I'm just… I like this one, but… I don't think it suits me."

He nodded, looking around once more and his muscles tensing as a brunette woman in a green minidress made her way down the thin hall to try on something in another stall. "I'd say it most likely does," he finally said.

"Yeah, until I breathe wrong and it decides my dignity is worthless." She let out another sigh while looking at herself in the mirror. "Besides, Mard would kill me if he saw this…"

"Then don't get it."

"But the color's perfect! And my tan lines are messed up from my last one, and he says that I'm  _not_ allowed to sunbathe naked."

"Thank god for small favors," Jackal thought out loud.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Huh?"

Lucy scowled and threw the curtain back, her hands on her hips as Jackal turned to face her. "You said-"

Jackal blinked as he took in the gold-colored bikini Lucy had on. Thin black straps tied behind her neck with what had to be the smallest bits of golden fabric ever created covering her nipples, leaving the majority of her breasts bare. The bottoms were nothing more than another nearly pointless golden triangle with straps leading back to what he already knew was a thong. He'd seen it on a mannequin when they'd come inside, and the mental picture he'd had of Lucy in it didn't do her justice. "I'm a dead man…"

She paused in her quiet tirade to stare at Jackal, her brows pushed together in confusion.

"Fuck, I'm so dead…"

"What are you talking about now?"

His eyes shot up to lock onto hers, and the small jingle at the front of the store brought him back to reality. "Y-You're… Wow…"

Heavy boots thundered through the store, and Jackal went rigid as his earpiece gave him nothing but static.

A moment later, he was crowding the blonde into the little stall.

"What the - Mmph!" Lucy's eyes went wide as he threw a hand over her mouth, shivering when she saw the suddenly deadly aura surrounding him.

He put a finger to his lips, then pulled his hand from her when he saw understanding dawning in her widened eyes. He nodded to the sundress she'd been wearing, drawing his pistol from the holster beneath his jacket while backing her into the corner away from the curtain.

He couldn't bother himself with the details of what had happened to the others, and instead poured his focus on the trembling blonde that was pressed against his back while she pulled her dress back on. She flinched when glass shattered in the main store. Before anything else could happen, he whirled around and pushed her to the floor.

Lucy's eyes slammed shut as the top of the stall was peppered with gunfire. She didn't care that Jackal was lying on top of her, or that she could feel the barrel of his gun resting on the top of her thigh. Her breathing was ragged as more gunshots sounded out, the familiar cries of pain as they struck the other customers in the store forcing her back to a darker time in her life.

Jackal very nearly growled when two distinct sets of steps crunched over broken glass. He barely shifted under the debris that had fallen on top of his shoulders when he heard them.

"C'mon, princess," one man called out. "We're here to pick you up for your date."

"Yeah," the second laughed. "Can't go bailin' on the boss, now."

"You already ditched him once," the first said, smirking and nodding toward the changing rooms. "He's not one to really play nice."

"And the only reason you ain't dead is because he likes ya."

Jackal sneered and brought his lips to Lucy's ear. "This isn't about your brother?"

Lucy nodded quickly. It really was about Mard, but she just so happened to have gotten pulled in the middle of it all. She hadn't meant to, and she'd thought that she was being safe and cautious. But she couldn't explain any of that right then.

"Trust me?"

Lucy nodded again.

"Better hope we find her in one piece, Jet. Dreyar's gonna flip shit if she's full of holes."

"When I say, run down the hall and out the back door," Jackal whispered. "There's a fire escape. Get up to the roof, and wait." With narrowed golden eyes, Jackal waited until the two men were nearly upon them before he acted. He sat up and shot through the curtain, pulling Lucy to her feet along with him.

"Shit! Droy!" Jet shouted, grunting when he took a bullet in the shoulder.

"Now," Jackal hissed. He rushed through the curtain, tackling a thin man with orange hair pulled in a high ponytail to the ground. A larger man with black hair was already down, groaning as he bled out on the floor.

Lucy whimpered as she made a mad dash for the door in the back, adrenaline rushing through her as the alarm blared once the door was open. She cursed her brother's insistence that she wear heels while out in town, especially when she stumbled on a rock and felt a sudden snap that sent searing pain shoot from her ankle up the length of her calf. The blonde barely caught herself on the edge of the dumpster, tears brimming on her lashes when she put the smallest bit of pressure on her right foot and collapsed.

"There she is!"

Lucy's eyes widened while she looked over her shoulder to see a large man running down the alley she'd come out into, his deep blue hair slicked up into a mohawk. "Bickslow…"

She knew for a fact that there was nothing she could do to outrun him on a good day. And climbing up onto the roof would only slow her down. The year and a half that she'd spent on Laxus Dreyar's arm had taught her quite a bit about the people he employed. And she was unlucky enough to have the ex-circus performer as the one rushing after her.

Still, Lucy had told Jackal that she was going to listen to him, and there was nothing else she could do. With that thought in mind, the blonde pulled off her heels and scrambled over to the ladder. Just as she was pulling herself up the first few rungs, she screamed as Bickslow's arm wound around her waist and dragged her back down.

"Let me go!"

"Aw, c'mon," he laughed, his tongue gliding up the length of her slender throat. "Don't ya miss us? I know Bossman misses you. I sure as shit miss you..."

"He tried to kill me!" Lucy twisted one way, then another, crying out when her injured ankle banged against the dumpster. She'd been stupid enough to allow Laxus to convince her that fooling around with his more attractive henchmen - namely, Bickslow - was just all in good fun. It had only ended in disaster.

"That's really not what I'm worried about," Bickslow chuckled. "He gave us a job, and we're gonna-"

Lucy screamed as a gunshot rung out through the alley, and the arm holding her to Bickslow's chest loosened while he stumbled away from her. She didn't look back, and didn't try to find out where the shot had come from, or who he was shooting back at. Instead she forced herself to move back to the ladder, even though she was crawling by that point, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She didn't know where Jackal was at, but he'd told her to get to the roof. Except, when she finally reached the metal monstrosity, her leg buckled as soon as she tried to get onto the first step.

"Fuck, that hurts," Bickslow grumbled, holding a hand to his shoulder to stop the blood from ruining his jacket too much. "I forgot how good a shot Racer was."

"L-Leave me alone," Lucy whimpered. "P-Please!"

"I am afraid we cannot do that, Miss Lucy."

She turned from watching the blue-haired man on one side while he slumped against the wall, to find Freed Justine, Laxus' right hand, walking toward her. "F-Freed, please… Don't do this."

He sighed while walking past the blonde to help Bickslow stand up, grimacing when he saw the wound his friend had sustained. "You know as well as I do, Miss Lucy, that what Laxus wants… He gets."

"Except he tried to kill me!" she cried. "You were the one that took me to the hospital!"

"I am," Freed nodded. "And had I not stopped him from electrocuting you again, you would be dead."

"So, why would you make me go back there?"

"Because those are the orders," Bickslow shrugged, hissing when his wound started throbbing more insistently.

"Bring the car around, Bickslow," Freed sighed. "I will assist her."

Lucy cringed when the taller of the two cackled and made his way out of the alley, keeping her eyes glued to Freed as he slowly walked closer. "F-Freed, he'll kill me. I left because of what he was doing. Y-You know it's not right!"

"Is it any more 'right' when Mard Geer is doing the same thing as Laxus?" Freed sighed. "When Makarov was alive, things were different. But we all do what we must to survive."

Lucy clutched her purse to herself as Freed knelt in front of her. "My brother took over for our father," she whispered. "I n-never said I like what he does. What either of them have done. I th-thought Laxus was different!"

"Then you know as well as I do, sacrifices must be made."

Just as the green-haired man reached for her, Lucy sneered and withdrew the taser she'd been forced to keep in her purse, then quickly pressed it into his neck. His eyes widened and his body began to convulse, but she didn't let up. At least, not until another pair of arms wrapped around her and ripped her from the twitching body on the ground. "Let me go!"

"Lucy, relax!" Jackal grunted when he was elbowed in the stomach. "It's me!"

She stopped attacking once she recognized Jackal's voice, but her hardened eyes stayed trained on Freed. "Tell your boss I said thanks for the taser!" she spat.

"I doubt he can hear you," Jackal sighed. "But, come on. Cobra's waiting and the cops are on the way. Mard's rules are simple: no cops, no cameras. Just get you back home."

Lucy nodded and bit her lips as he helped her to her feet. She took a step to follow him once she was released, then gasped and gripped his arm when her ankle buckled again.

"Shit, are you alright?"

Lucy shook her head. "M-My ankle…"

"Goddamnit…" Jackal sneered while he lifted her into his arms, storming down the alley and toward the black car that already had Cobra standing at the door.

"Fuck, what happened to you?" Cobra asked as he held the door open for the two.

"Later," Jackal spat. "Get us the fuck out of here."

The shot of a gun shattered the air just as they were about to get in the car, and Jackal pitched forward as white-hot pain speared through his shoulder.

"Jackal!" Lucy screeched as a second shot went through his calf. A third and fourth rung out in quick succession, but she couldn't tell where they went.

Cobra looked down the alley that Lucy and Jackal had come from, sneering when he saw Bickslow kneeling over Freed. Withdrawing his pistol, he fired without thinking about just who it was, grinding his teeth together as his aim proved true and the blue-haired man fell to the ground with a bullet between his eyes. He watched for a moment as Freed started to stir, the grip on his gun tightening. "Hurry up!"

Jackal settled Lucy in the seat, then crawled in after her. The door slammed behind him, and he locked the back doors while watching intently as Cobra rushed to the driver's door.

Once the car was moving, Jackal pulled his jacket off and set it in his lap. Lucy turned as he pulled her feet up and propped them on his jacket, then roughly swiped away her tears as he started gently probing her swelling ankle.

Jackal scowled when he heard her whimper, looking up into her teary eyes. "It's broken."

"Don't worry about me!" she shouted. "Y-You got shot! Are you-"

"I'm fine," he spat through clenched teeth. "Nothing I haven't dealt with before."

"Wh-What happened to you?" Lucy whispered. "What took so long?"

He sighed and reached forward to grab her hands that were balled up in her lap. Once she was tightly gripping his hand, his thumb brushed over her knuckles as he whispered, "Few more came in through the front. I handled it." He reached into the pocket in his jacket and pulled out a small remote control, then pressed a button.

Lucy gasped as a sudden explosion rocked the earth around them, and looked back to see the shop was engulfed in flames.

Jackal smirked, his sharpened teeth glinting slightly. "What, didn't Mard tell you what my specialty is?"

She looked back at him in horror, trying to pull her hands from his. "What did you do?"

"Got rid of the evidence," he replied, nearly groaning in pain while he held her hands in place. "No one will know you were there. Or who started all of it. And the bodies left won't even be identifiable by dental records."

"B-But…"

"Look, I already figured out you're not like your brother, but I've gotta know what the hell just happened."

"I-It was Laxus… He's trying to get me to go back to him."

"Dreyar," Jackal whispered with a frown. "What do you mean, 'go back'?"

She fidgeted slightly, biting her lip as Cobra flew over a large pothole that jarred her already throbbing ankle. "I was his girlfriend for a while… And then he took his rivalry with Mard out on me. When his grandfather was alive, things were great. Laxus was sweet… A-And then he changed."

"Well, I know he's the one that Mard has the most trouble with," Jackal muttered. "But why would he try to get you back?"

"S-So he can kill me and ruin my brother," she cried.

"Mard's not gonna like this," Jackal hissed, steadying the blonde when Cobra flew around a corner too quickly. The way she was crying, feeling how she trembled in fear, broke something inside of him. Jackal had never really been one for wanting to kill people, but he'd quickly realized that sometimes there were people that just needed to die. How anyone could hurt Lucy, just to get to her brother, made him sick. Here she was, this sweet girl that made everyone around her smile, and Laxus wanted to kill her.

The window rolled down between the blondes in the back and Cobra, and he glanced in the rearview mirror to see Lucy. "I called your brother, Bright Eyes. He's got Doc there already."

"I-Is he mad?"

"He's pissed, for sure," Cobra nodded. "But, don't you let him tell you it's your fault."

"T-Tell him it was Laxus…"

Cobra's single eye hardened and he gave her a short nod before closing the window again. Jackal looked from the window to Lucy again, a frown on his lips. "I never heard about any of this," he whispered. "Don't you think someone should've told me that Dreyar would be coming after you?"

She shrugged. "I didn't th-think he would. And Cobra only knows because he was dating Laxus' right hand man. Freed called him when I got taken to the hospital…"

"What did he do to you?" Jackal asked.

"Chained me in a bathtub full of water and electrocuted me," she whispered. "He was obsessed with electricity. If Freed hadn't stopped him and given me CPR, he was going to take me down into the basement, a-and…"

When Lucy shuddered, Jackal threw caution to the wind and gently pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. It hurt like hell to move, but he couldn't stand her looking like that.

"I-I tried to forget," she cried. Lucy wasn't sure what it was that made her comfortable enough to allow him to hold her like this, but she needed something to ground her right then. Usually when it got too bad, when she would start panicking and thinking about the things Laxus had done to her, Mard was there. But now, she had to wait for her brother's comforting embrace. Which meant Jackal would just have to do.

"It's okay, Lucy," he whispered. "I won't let him get you. I swear it."

"Y-You can't know that-"

"I don't have to know," he chuckled. "Because if Dreyar ever tries some shit like this again, I'll go and blow his house up, then torture him for  _months_ …" A dark grin stretched over his face as she looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes. "He's caused you enough pain, so I think it's high time he gets some of his own."

She sniffled and shook her head. "I don't want more people to get hurt."

"Then we'll just make sure nothing like this happens again," Jackal whispered. He looked down at her ankle and sighed heavily. "Then again, Mard might never let me near you again. I was supposed to keep you safe."

"A-And you did…"

"A broken ankle isn't keeping you safe," he replied. "And you were the one that got that green-haired cockstain off of you. Not me. All I did was…" He froze when slender fingers brushed over his lips to silence him.

"Y-You kept me as safe as you could," she whispered. "I broke my ankle because of my shoes…"

"... Are you serious?"

A rueful smile pulled at her lips. "Yes. I'm quite the klutz."

Even with pain clear in her eyes, Lucy's smile took his breath away. She wasn't nearly as put-together right then as he always saw her, but even like this… She was still so damn beautiful it hurt. "You're still perfect to me," Jackal thought out loud. And she was. Even with her being a klutz that carried a taser in her purse, a broken ankle and her makeup smeared under her eyes, Lucy was perfect.

"Wh-What?"

He blinked and frowned in confusion at the wide-eyed look she was giving him. "Huh?"

"You said I'm… still perfect to you…"

"What?! N-No! I, um…" He chuckled nervously. "That's not what I m-meant! Just that, y'know… You're perfect, yeah, but a-anyone could tell you that. I'd be blind not to see it! A-And I'm not blind!"

Lucy bit her lips to stifle her laughter at the red-faced man whose arms were still around her.

"In fact, I see everything," Jackal insisted. He wasn't sure what was coming out of his mouth by that point, but if it could keep Lucy from telling Mard what he'd let slip, he was all for it. "Your smile and how beautiful you are. And sometimes I hear you singing when I come to the house, and I know it's you because Seilah sounds like a cat in heat and I'm pretty sure it would be the apocalypse if Kyouka started singing  _anything_. And even earlier! Y'know, when you were thinking about that bathing suit. It's perfect and it suits you, but that's because  _you're_  perfect, a-and…" He paused when he realized just what he was telling her. "Oh god, just kill me now. I'm so fucking dead…"

And finally, Lucy couldn't control her laughter. She buried her head just under his chin and just laughed. More than she had in years.

Jackal stopped running through his checklist of ways to get away from Mard in one piece to look down at the shaking blonde. "Uh… Did I miss something?"

"Y-You're…" Lucy shook her head and just kept laughing though. Because that was the first time in quite a while - a couple years, when she thought about it - that anyone had said anything remotely nice about her. At least, not the way Jackal had done. The last time she'd been told that she was perfect, or anything remotely close to it, was when Laxus had asked her out. And he'd been just as big a bumbling fool about telling her as Jackal seemed to be.

She finally got herself under control and looked up to see he was staring out the window, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy. Embarrassed, she suddenly realized. So, without thinking too much about it, Lucy leaned up and quickly kissed his cheek.

He jolted and turned to look at her before Lucy had even had a chance to pull away, his eyes widening when he found his lips pressed against hers. Lucy's eyes were just as wide as she pulled back, and Jackal was finding himself more than ready to crawl under a rock and die.

"W-Well," Lucy whispered, her cheeks flushing brilliantly. "U-Um…"

"Sorry…"

Her lips parted to say something, although she wasn't sure just what she was going to say, and then the car came to a screeching halt. Between one moment and the next, the door was thrown open and her brother was pulling her out and into his arms. "M-Mard!"

"I'm going to kill that sorry son of a bitch," he hissed, crushing Lucy to his chest. "Let's get you looked at."

"Mard, wait!" Lucy stumbled as he pulled away, sighing as what she already found to be familiar arms lifted her up. "J-Jackal!"

Instead of a smirk, his face was stony and serious. "Miss Lucy broke her ankle," he said to the black-haired man that was glaring at him with deadly eyes. "She ran out of the store when I told her to, but her heels weren't really meant for running in an alley…"

"You let her get hurt?"

"Yes, sir," Jackal nodded, following his boss's lead and walking into the house. He wasn't going to mention the fact that his leg felt like it would give out at any second, or how painful it was to hold Lucy with his shoulder torn to shreds and bleeding. Or how the pain was shooting down his back and making him see spots. "I was taking care of the men inside, and told her to get up onto the roof where it was safe. I don't… I don't know what happened while she was…"

Lucy frowned while looking up at Jackal's face, her eyes widening when she saw how pale he was. "Jackal?"

He shook his head and took another step, the edges of his vision darkening slightly. Suddenly, the pain he'd been ignoring roared to life. His shoulder, leg, and…

Lucy gasped as he crumpled to the ground, ignoring the pain in her ankle from the fall to kneel over him. "Jackal!" She reached out and touched his cheek, then looked up with tear-filled eyes as Cobra came rushing to kneel beside her.

Cobra sneered as he looked at the large crimson stains on Jackal's shirt. One in his shoulder, and… "He took two in the back," Cobra hissed. "Mard, he needs a doctor!"

"This imbecile allowed my sister to get hurt," Mard said coolly.

"He took those shots protecting me!" Lucy shouted. "Big brother, please! Jackal was doing his job, just like you wanted. He was willing to die to save me!"

Mard's eyes narrowed in thought, looking from his sister to the unconscious man on the ground. "Who shot him?"

"Bickslow," Cobra sneered. "He got one between the eyes."

"And, who else was there?"

Cobra's lips thinned into a line while he looked up at his boss. "He was there too, Boss. Probably dead now, since Jackal blew the fucking store up."

Mard looked back to his sister, then nodded to Gray and Silver who were standing nearby. "Take him up to see the doctor," he sighed. "Don't let him bleed on the rug."

Lucy sniffled quietly as Jackal was carried away, watching until he disappeared into the house. She was lifted into Mard's arms a moment later. "I-I'll be okay until Doc's done."

"Cobra, it seems we'll need your daughter's help."

Cobra blinked, then nodded and pulled his phone from his pocket. He found the contact information for the girl he'd all but officially adopted after finding her scrounging around on the streets when she was only five. "Wendy, got a job for you," he said softly. When he heard the school bell ringing in the background, signalling the end of lunch, he sighed and closed his eye. Fifteen was too young to be involved in any of this shit, but Wendy was a genius when it came to medical treatment.

_"What happened?"_

"Just a broken ankle this time…"

_"Oh god, are you okay? Who's hurt?"_

"I'm fine, Little Bit. It's Lucy…"

_"I've got next period free, but I heard my Chemistry teacher was doing pop quizzes today."_

"Yeah, I'll write a note for your teacher…"

_"Alright. I'll head down to the office and let them know you're coming to get me."_

"Bring your books and shit, kiddo. I'll help you with your homework afterwards…"

_"Have Mister Tartaros put ice on her foot, and keep it elevated on a pillow until I get there. I love you, Papa."_

"Okay. Love you, too."

"You have twenty minutes," Mard said as Cobra hung up the phone. "Lucy will be in her room."

* * *

Lucy sighed as she made her way to the room at the end of the hall on her crutches. She knew that she wasn't supposed to be up and moving around all that much, but two days spent in her room was enough to drive anyone insane. She'd turned off her phone and had cancelled the plans she'd made with Angel and Meredy for later that week, letting them know that she'd had another mishap and broke her ankle. She didn't mention that Laxus had tried to have her kidnapped.

She came to the door and silently pushed it open, not even bothering to knock. And she was instantly greeted with the sight of a shirtless Jackal lying in the king size bed in the center of the room, with bandages around his torso and shoulder. She could only assume his leg was also bandaged beneath the blanket.

He was awake, but simply staring at the drawn curtains and out toward the garden as he stayed lost in his thoughts.

She made her way around the bed and carefully settled herself on the edge once she was in front of him. "How are you feeling?" she whispered.

"Like a million bucks… Pretty sure your brother's gonna kill me any day now for letting you get hurt."

"No," she giggled. "I talked to him yesterday."

"How I'm even still alive is beyond me."

"Because I made him understand that you did it to protect me," Lucy whispered.

"I'd do it all over again if I had to," he smirked.

"I'd rather you didn't…"

"Well, I'll take getting shot up over you getting hurt any day. You're too special to…" He flushed and looked over at her then. "I-I mean… Nevermind."

Lucy's eyes narrowed slightly, and she scooted closer to where his hand was resting on the bed. "Jackal, do you maybe…"

"Just stop," he huffed, pulling his hand from her grasp once her fingers brushed over his skin. "It shouldn't matter what I think, alright? Just, know that I'll protect you again if I'm ever allowed to be near you."

"But why?"

"Because you're the boss's little sister." He had to leave it at that. Nothing else mattered. Not how he felt for Lucy, or how scared he'd been that day, thinking that she was going to get killed.

She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "That's all I'll ever be," she pouted. "One failed relationship, and now I'm locked up here because Mard doesn't trust anyone to be close to me without me getting hurt."

"Well, he trusted me, and look what happened…"

"My ankle getting broken wasn't your fault," she insisted. "And if it wasn't for you, I would have been shot because Jet and Droy are trigger-happy. Or I would have been back with Laxus, tied up somewhere getting tortured. You  _saved_  me, Jackal."

"I don't save people," he spat. "All I do is cause more bad shit to happen."

"I don't believe that."

"You don't have to… You should just go, okay? If Mard's not gonna kill me, then he'll be firing me once I can get out of this bed. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but… I'll figure something out."

"He's not firing you."

"How would you know that?"

She smiled and bit her lip while moving to lie down in front of the blond. The bed was large enough that there was room for her, with plenty of space between them. And she  _was_  supposed to be resting, so technically she was listening to what Wendy had told her to do. It just wasn't in her own bed. "I know because I told him that, since Laxus seems to be hellbent on getting me back, I'm going to need a regular bodyguard. He agreed, but then… I guess he already knew what I was thinking…"

"What does this have to do with me? I'm useless right now."

"But you'll be healed up in no time," she smirked. "I'll be down for a few weeks at least. And when I mentioned to him that whoever my bodyguard would be needed to know what was going on, I also might have said that I only trusted one person to do it."

"Cobra?" The two were relatively close from what he'd noticed. Except, Jackal knew the guy had a daughter - sort of - and that he was trying to lay low as far as the more dangerous shit was concerned so she wouldn't be left all alone again.

"No, silly. You." When he frowned, Lucy rolled her eyes. "No one but Mard and Cobra know what Laxus did to me. But I told you. And… You already proved that you're willing to protect me."

"It's my job," he shrugged, hissing when the sutures in his shoulder pulled uncomfortably.

"It's more than that to you," she said with a knowing smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, considering you were thanking god over me not being able to sunbathe naked," she laughed, "And what you said in the car…"

"Blood loss," he muttered. "I was being an idiot."

"Why would you say that?" she frowned.

And instead of using his head, Jackal's mouth opened and the truth came out. "Because you're too good for me. It doesn't matter what I think of you, or how often you're on my mind, because I'm trash and you're a damn princess."

Lucy blinked in surprise, staring at Jackal with her mouth hanging open and not hearing the door to the room open.

"I'm not delusional, y'know," he continued. "I know that, no matter what I think, I'll never have a shot in hell at telling you that I love you, because it'll go in one ear and out the other. And if he ever found out, Mard would kill me so fucking fast for even thinking of falling for you. Besides, I'm just an employee. A ratty kid from the streets that somehow weaseled my way in here, all so that I didn't have to be hungry and I could feel like I had a home."

Mard raised an intrigued brow while leaning against the door jamb.

"So yeah, I was being an idiot for telling you that you'll always be perfect to me. You will be, that's not gonna change, but you didn't need to hear that. I should've kept my damn mouth shut, because now all I can think about is how I accidentally kissed you, and how amazing it felt to just hold you. And then there's thinking that I could've lost you, even though you're not mine to lose. You're your own person, and I totally respect that, but it was just fucking terrifying thinking I wouldn't be able to see you smile ever again if those guys got a hold of you, and that I'd never get the chance to tell you any of the shit I've been thinking about for the past couple years, ever since I first saw you. Like the fact that I really do love you, and… and I can't believe I'm still talking right now… What the fuck is wrong with me…"

When he turned and buried his face in a pillow, Lucy was positively glowing. "Y-You… do?"

An outright denial of the shit he'd been spewing was sitting right on the tip of his tongue, but instead of saying it, he whispered, "Yes."

"Well," Mard said, clearing his throat. "That has to be the most awkward, bumbling love confession I have ever witnessed."

"I'm so fucking dead," Jackal whimpered.

The onyx-haired man smirked and pushed away from the door, looking at the shy smile on his sister's face as she stared at Jackal. The last time he'd seen her this happy was when she and Laxus had started dating, before he'd been twisted by Ivan and convinced to murder Makarov. Lucy didn't know any of that though. She didn't remember that Laxus and Mard had once been friends, before Mirajane broke the blond's heart in favor of Mard.

But Mira was working for Laxus, now. After only two months of being an item, she'd left Mard and returned to the Dreyars. And the bastard was still trying to make sure that Mard was made miserable. He'd never cared for Lucy the way she believed he had. She had been too naive to see through it all.

But Jackal… Mard knew where he came from, and that he was loyal. He'd worked his way up over the past decade and made a name for himself, one that had replaced whatever his birth name had been. And listening to the amount of self-doubt in his subordinate's voice, he could hear the truth in it all.

Jackal knew where he fit in this world, that he was lower than the woman whose life he'd protected.

But Lucy had never cared about anything like that. She was too good, and too sweet, and Mard just knew that she would get herself hurt if she wasn't careful. Still, seeing the look in her eyes right then had Mard stopping himself from saying anything else - like the order to have Jackal slaughtered for even thinking about her - aside from, "Lucy, I would suggest showing caution. Spending too much time with him may cause you to become more of a buffoon."

"Kill me now, before he does," Jackal whispered.

Mard smirked, his eyes glinting with mischief. "Jackal…" When the man on the bed flinched, he couldn't help but chuckle. "You have been assigned a new position as Lucy's bodyguard."

"I told him already," Lucy smiled.

"Yes, well I might add the stipulation that… Should you break her heart… I will rip out your intestines and force you to watch as I feed them to your namesake."

Lucy blinked as Mard left the room, closing the door behind him, then looked down to the cowering man before her. "I'm pretty sure he just gave you permission to date me," she said absently.

"How do you figure?"

"He said if you break my heart…"

Jackal slowly turned his head so he could breathe, his eyes opening to look into Lucy's deep honey eyes. "If that's the case… He's got nothing to worry about."

"And why's that?"

"I'd rather die than hurt you…"

Lucy's cheeks lit up in a gentle pink blush. "Then, would it be alright if I gave my heart to you to protect, too?"

"Yeah," Jackal whispered with a smirk. "I think I can manage that."

Lucy bit her lip to fight against her suddenly giddy smile, and it only got harder to control when Jackal smiled back at her, his pointed teeth gleaming in the sunlight from the window. "I guess I should be thanking you though."

"Why's that?"

"I ended up getting that bathing suit you saw," she giggled. "Since the store blew up and all..."

The last thing Lucy had been expecting was for Jackal's eyes to roll back and blood to pour from his nose. "Such a dork," she laughed, reaching over to grab a few tissues and press them to his nose. Still, it was flattering to know that she could make him react like this.  _'I wonder what else I'll learn about you, Jackal.'_

And she knew, without a doubt, whatever she learned about him… She would love it.

 


End file.
